UFO sightings: the Will Smith effect examined

New Unidentified Flying Objects statistics show the numbers of sightings each year - plus the official explanations for them. So, what is the effect of science fiction in the movies and on TV?
•UFO sightings: the British X files in full

UFO sightings in their sites: Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith in Men in Black
Public Domain

Independence Day came out and the figures went up - as they did when Tom Baker's doctor battled Davros in Doctor Who and Mulder and Scully investigated the X-files. Are UFO sightings really linked to Hollywood and TV?

There's certainly a UFO peak in years with a big Will Smith sci fi movie out - particularly 1996 with Independence Day and 1997 with the first Men in Black movie.

David Clarke, a UFO expert (he's also the UFO consultant at the National Archives) has spent years immersing himself in Freedom of Information requests to get whitehall to release the UFO files and he has supplied us with this data. The table below shows how many sightings have been recorded for every year between 1959 and 2008. We've put on some major UFO sci fi moments - can you think of any we've missed? Put them in the comments field at the bottom and we'll add them in.

When the MoD receives these sightings, what does it make of them? The data below tells us. Until the end of 1973, the MoD provided detailed response assessments of each UFO sighting - until cuts forced it to stop.